Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP and Affiliates at a Glance

Uppers

“Prestige. Everyone knows who Skadden is whether you work in BigLaw or not.”

Downers

“Lack of transparency regarding advancement”

“The hours and market compensation”

“Extremely low prospects at partnership; many groups do not make counsel”

About Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP and Affiliates

Giant Among Mortals

Kind of like Oprah or Beyoncé, Skadden is a giant among mortals.
Known by its one name, it sits atop its world, continuously topping
the AmLaw 100 as one of the most profitable law firms. It was the
first law firm to report $1 billion in annual revenue-now an
industry brass ring. But it's not just about the money or
numbers-Skadden consistently draws top accolades from the most
esteemed rankings: Chambers, The American Lawyer,
The National Law Journal, and the Financial
Times. The firm also gets regular annual kudos from several
international rankings and industry-specific publications, such as
Corporate Board Member's ranking of "America's Best
Corporate Law Firms."

A Consummate Corporate Practice

Much of Skadden's ethos can be attributed to Joe Flom, who
started at Skadden three months after its 1948 founding (legend has
it that Flom's early wages came from a weekly pinochle pot) and
whose name graced the door a mere 13 years later. Flom-who was
active in the firm almost up until his passing, at 87, in February
2011-participated in most of the major M&A deals of the 70s and
80s, establishing Skadden's hard-nosed style and building a
reputation for aggressive strategies. Flom also spearheaded the
firm's practice diversification efforts from its original M&A
base. Skadden now boasts top-notch restructuring, corporate
finance, tax, intellectual property, real estate, white-collar
defense, and commercial, securities, and products liability
litigation groups, among countless others. One example of the
expansion of the firm's strengths: According to statistics from Lex
Machina, Skadden served as defense counsel in more federal
securities cases in the U.S. from 2009 to 2016 than any other
firm.

Brioche and Butter

Multifaceted as it is, Skadden's forte is still M&A. Deals
such as DuPont-Conoco, U.S. Steel-Marathon Oil, and, most notably,
the 1989 takeover of RJR Nabisco, launched Skadden into the top
rung of American law firms. Recent notable M&A deals handled by
the firm include representing Express Scripts Holding Company in
its $67 billion acquisition by the Cigna Corporation, Twenty-First
Century Fox, Inc. in its $66 billion acquisition by the Walt Disney
Company, Rockwell Collins, Inc. in its $30 billion acquisition by
United Technologies Corporation, and Westfield Corporation in its
$25 billion acquisition by Unibail-Rodamco SE. It's not surprising
then that Skadden became the first law firm to ever handle over $1
trillion in global announced M&A deals in a single year (2015)
and that it's consistently ranked in the top tier for M&A by
Chambers USA, Chambers Global, U.S. News-Best
Lawyers, and The Legal 500. The firm was ranked first by value in
2017 global and U.S. announced M&A league tables published by
Bloomberg, Mergermarket, and Thomson
Reuters. In 2016, Chambers USA gave the firm an Award
for Excellence as the nation's top M&A practice.

Litigation: Bigger Is Better

Don't be deceived by Skadden's M&A foundation-the firm's
litigators are first-rate. A finalist in The American Lawyer's 2017
Litigation Department of the Year competition and selected as its
2017 White Collar/Regulatory Litigation Department of the Year, the
firm has a distinguished record of litigation achievements. Among
other recent victories, the firm successfully advised E.I. du Pont
de Nemours and Company on securing approval of its $130 billion
merger with Dow Chemical Co. in one of the first megadeals to
overcome antitrust concerns under the Trump administration. The
firm also defended Sprint Corporation's $3.6 billion buyout of
Clearwire Corporation in a determination that represents, by far,
the most dramatic downward departure from a deal price in the
history of the Court of Chancery. Also, in a case of first
impression expected to have a significant impact on litigation
related to the increasingly global securities market, Skadden
secured a Second Circuit Court of Appeals decision vacating class
certification sought by plaintiffs against Brazilian oil giant
Petrobras and Skadden's clients, 13 underwriters of Petrobras'
global bond offerings.

Skadden also has been an MVP in recent high-profile sports
litigation. The firm secured a complete victory on behalf of the 32
member clubs of the National Football League against a group of
retired players who asserted fraud-based claims, eliminating
potentially $1 billion in liability for the league; the ruling in
the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California
creates a significant hurdle for future plaintiffs seeking redress
for similar types of claims. In addition, the firm has been heavily
involved in defending the University of North Carolina in class
actions brought by former student-athletes who alleged that the
university breached its contract with student-athletes by
purportedly denying them a high-quality education. The firm also
secured a complete victory on behalf of Saoud Al-Mohannadi, vice
president of the Qatar Football Association and Asian Football
Confederation, defeating charges brought by the Investigatory
Chamber of the FIFA Ethics Committee, which alleged that Mr.
Al-Mohannadi had been untruthful and uncooperative as a witness in
an unrelated ethics investigation, and overturning sanctions
imposed on him by the Ethics Committee.

Taxation With Representation

Skadden's Tax Group advises on many of the most complex and
noteworthy transactions - both domestic and cross-border, across
all industries - and assists clients in resolving large, complex
and global tax controversies. Ranked No. 1 for tax in
Vault's Law 100 rankings from 2010-18 (every year since
the ranking's inception), the group recently represented
Amazon.com, Inc. in its U.S. Tax Court victory in one of the
largest transfer pricing cases in decades and the first involving
e-commerce. Also, in a high-profile, closely watched case with
wide-reaching implications for multinational corporations, Skadden
represented power management and global energy parts supplier Eaton
Corporation in a U.S. Tax Court victory in the first case involving
the court's review of an IRS decision to retroactively cancel an
advance pricing agreement. Clients also regularly turned to Skadden
to handle sensitive tax investigations and to defend tax-related
class actions and professional liability disputes.

IN THE NEWS

May 2018

In the 2018 edition of Chambers USA:America's
Leading Lawyers for Business, Skadden had 32 practices
included in Band 1, as well as 64 top-tier attorney rankings, the
most among any law firm. This includes seven "Star Individual"
rankings and 57 individual Band 1 rankings. Skadden also was
recognized with an award for having the best US M&A
practice.

January 2018

Skadden received more Law360 2017 "Practice Group of
the Year" awards than any other firm, earning the "Firm of the
Year" designation. Skadden was honored with Practice Group of
the Year awards in nine areas: Bankruptcy, Capital Markets, Energy,
Insurance, International Arbitration, Mergers and Acquisitions,
Securities, Tax and Trials.

January 2018

Skadden ranked first by value in 2017 global and U.S. M&A
league tables published by Bloomberg, Mergermarket and Thomson
Reuters. In other regional rankings, Skadden placed first in
announced M&A deals by value for cross-border and South East
Asia (Bloomberg); Americas (Mergermarket); and emerging markets and
Middle East & North Africa (Thomson Reuters).

December 2017

In the Financial Times' 2017 North America "Innovative
Lawyers" report, three Skadden matters-involving work for Sun
Edison, Yahoo! and Social Capital Hedosophia Holdings-were
recognized among the year's most innovative deals. Skadden
has had substantially more matters ranked in the FT
report, since its 2010 inception, than any other firm.

October 2017

In the 2017 edition of Who's Who Legal: Business Crime
Defense, Skadden has more attorneys cited as leading lawyers
globally than any other law firm, "showcasing the depth and breadth
of its transatlantic offering." According to the publication,
Skadden also "boasts the foremost white-collar crime team in the
US." On the investigations side, Skadden was again named as having
one of the top five practices worldwide in Global
Investigations Review's "GIR 30" (Oct. 2017) a ranking of
leading firms handling internal and government-led investigations.
According to the publication, "Few competitors can match the
breadth of Skadden's investigations capabilities."

September 2017

For the seventh consecutive time, Skadden was named to the BTI
Consulting Group's list of top litigation law firms. "The BTI
Fearsome Five" included the five elite law firm litigation
practices that general counsel would least want to face across the
table in litigation. Based on 350 recent interviews with companies'
leading legal decision-makers, BTI Litigation Outlook 2018
also noted Skadden as a Powerhouse in Class Actions, Complex
Commercial Litigation, Complex Employment Litigation, IP
Litigation, Product Liability Litigation, and Securities and
Finance Litigation.